Pat Spillane's Ominous Warning Over Quarter-Final Celebrations Was Pure Kerry

Few could have foreseen how Kerry utterly dismantled Armagh in the second half of Sunday's All-Ireland football quarter-final.

The Kingdom went into the match as underdogs, unfamiliar territory for the giants of Gaelic football. It was clear that, coupled with a few media remarks and the chip on their shoulder from last year's semi-final defeat to Armagh, had them riled up for the occasion.

That meant that when they ran out victors by a remarkable 0-32 to 1-21 scoreline, the celebrations from the Kerry faithful were euphoric.

Jack O'Connor, Sean O'Shea, and Jason Foley all told RTÉ post-match that Kerry had indeed been aware of the noise around the county in the buildup to the game, and that it had been an important factor in their preparations.

The glee in Kerry has many believing that they can go all the way to Sam Maguire once more - but Pat Spillane has an ominous warning for his county.

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Pat Spillane appeared on the Independent GAA podcast this week to reflect on a gripping weekend of All-Ireland quarter-final action.

He saw shades of the famous 2009 demolition of Dublin in how they had similarly demolished Armagh in the second half of Sunday's gripping clash:

You can remember in 2009 - I remember it well - the qualifiers, they stumbled past Longford, Sligo missed a penalty to beat them, and they stumbled over Antrim. Then they reached the quarter-final and you think the evidence is they're gone. Then they play Dublin in the quarter-final and they produce what I believe to be the last brilliant performance, when they beat Pat Gilroy's Dubs by 17 points.

I read the comments from Jack after the game - now, bare in mind, that's 16 years ago! - and I could copy and paste. The same comments post-match - "proving everyone wrong" and all that.

However, it was a similar scenario three years later that gave Spillane more cause for concern about Kerry's chances this year.

The eight-time All-Ireland champion drew comparison with the 2012 victory over Tyrone in the final round of the qualifiers, another unexpectedly routine victory. Spillane pointed out what had happened in the following game as a warning sign for Kerry this time around.

I then looked at 2012, just for a bit of perspective.

Kerry people have been rightly celebrating last week's performance. But, with all due respect, it was a brilliant performance [but] it was an All-Ireland quarter-final. Jesus, there's no medals handed out for quarter-finals or brilliant performances!

The last qualifier performance I saw where Kerry celebrated with exuberance was in 2012 [against Tyrone] when 22,000 people packed into Killarney on a lovely hot Saturday afternoon and Kerry destroyed Tyrone. And they celebrated with gusto, this "we're back" and, again, I looked at the comments, and guess what? "We proved the people wrong who were writing us off."

The warning here - what happened in the next match in 2012? We were beaten by [Donegal] in the quarter-finals.

So, a brilliant performance - but let's put things in perspective. It's only a quarter-final victory.

The attitude of "it's only a quarter-final victory" is one that many of the best managers would be drilling into their players after such a win - but it is also pure Kerry.

Jack O'Connor and his men may be thrilled to have answered a few critics, but they will not be satisfied until they have Sam Maguire in their hands.

They face Tyrone in the All-Ireland semi-finals on Saturday July 12th.